(Business in Cameroon) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has maintained its pressure on the government of Cameroon to either reduce or scrap off fuel subsidies.

At the end of a one week visit to the country on November 25, 2013, a joint team of staff of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, through its leader, Mario de Zamaroczy, said the generalised subsidies to fuel prices are not an optimum way to use scarce resources, praying the State to think about possible reforms in that area.

Cameroon Tribune quotes Mario de Zamaroczy as saying that “Cameroon has huge investment needs and we fully support the major projects that are being implemented but we need to accelerate the implementation of the projects and we also need to be careful that the general terms and conditions of the debts that the State is contracting to finance the projects remain well thought out and sustainable.

Speaking to the press, the IMF/World Bank team leader, Mario de Zamaroczy, said the country’s growth is robust. “We estimate that growth will be over 4.5 per cent in 2013 and inflation remains subdued well below the convergence criterion of the region. The prospects for 2014 are equally promising. We see growth in the same tune of about 4.5 to 5 per cent and we also believe inflation will remain low,” he said.

He however said there are challenges that authorities need to surmount to keep the economy healthy. “The first one is to increase and accelerate growth. The robust growth performance is not sufficient to put the country on the path of economic emergence that authorities themselves have said they want to attain in 2035. We need higher growth to see the results faster and to reduce poverty,” he observed. The team leader also expressed hopes that with strategies put in place, the page would be turned at the year’s end on the not-so-good revenue situation of the country which at the beginning of the year fell below expectations.

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